LassoSoft Inc. - Transparencyhttp://www.lassosoft.com
Regular musings from the LassoSoft CEO, Sean Stephens, as part of the new transparency and openness of LassoSoft Inc.Thu, 22 Feb 2018 12:09 -0500http://www.leapcms.comenhourly1Rosetta Code and Notablityhttp://www.lassosoft.com/Rosetta-code-and-notability
Thu, 31 Oct 2013 04:53 -0400Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/Rosetta-code-and-notabilityIn a recent dialogue with a University, I stumbled across a neat site comparing various development languages, their style and rules, through various examples. The site is aptly named after the Rosetta Stone; http://rosettacode.org

Out of 516 languages listed Lasso did not appear. Not even once.*
]]>LassoSoft in Reviewhttp://www.lassosoft.com/lassosoft-in-review
Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:54 -0500Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/lassosoft-in-review

I am so frickin' excited about Lasso right now.

It's been a while since I blogged. I'll stop saying that now. But given the restlessness of the world (and the many people trying to repurpose their signs for "the end is near!" by writing in "Lasso" so they read "The End of Lasso is Near"), it's probably time I caught everyone up on all that's been going on.

]]>The Freelancing Voidhttp://www.lassosoft.com/The-Freelancer-Void
Thu, 12 Jul 2012 11:47 -0400Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/The-Freelancer-Void
One of the strangest things in the Lasso community is the lack of a freelancing websites that have "Lasso" listed as a skill. Recently I've had a flurry of requests from Lasso developers looking for small pieces of work to get done - and I am certainly aware that there are Lasso developers out there actively looking for work. I always send them back to LassoTalk - but I rarely see the posts end up there.
]]>Lasso's Social Media Challengehttp://www.lassosoft.com/Lasso-Social-Media-Challenge
Fri, 29 Jun 2012 03:04 -0400Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/Lasso-Social-Media-Challenge
As I look to gauge the popularity of Lasso versus other languages, I have realized one of the key performance measures of popularity (or "programming language fashionability") is how obvious or "out there" a given language might be in the New World Order. Lasso has traditionally been a closely guarded secret (even intentionally secretive, in fact, by the old guard and the Inline Curtain), and as a result, the popularity of Lasso out on the web is, well, not obvious.

It's a very big challenge, actually - compared to how prevalent the language is when it comes to actual usage in back-end web systems of the world. It's something we must change.

]]>On Documentationhttp://www.lassosoft.com/On-Documentation
Sun, 24 Jun 2012 09:21 -0400Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/On-Documentation
One of the key discussions brought up at LDC 2012 was the subject of "Documentation". Now "Documentation", as a concept, has a whole bunch of different potential components. Off the top of my head, I can think of the following;

Reference Information

Books on "How-to"

A Reference Manual

Articles and Examples

Videos and Tutorials

These, of course, have different key audiences - including new and past users of Lasso, newbie or pro-am users like myself right up to Captains of Code, like Jono or Ke or Steffan. Everyone needs more documentation.

]]>LassoLab is Open-Sourcehttp://www.lassosoft.com/LassoLab-Is-Open-Source
Wed, 06 Jun 2012 09:52 -0400Rachel Guthriehttp://www.lassosoft.com/LassoLab-Is-Open-Source
As the big news from the conference was obviously the release of LassoLab, I figured I should talk about it a bit. As most of you know, it was a completely secret project, as we wanted to make a splash. We also wanted to not promise anything we couldn't deliver. Once the prototype phase was complete, it didn't make sense to open it up for discussion until we were complete.

Not only am I excited about the functionality (I'd love to hear about if it has saved you time!), but I am also excited about the philosophical basis of the project in general. I thought maybe you should hear about some of the rationale of engaging in an open-source project at this time.

For those of you who were there: thank you again. I didn't get to spend time with each of you personally - but I did get a lot of meaningful time with a number of you. I cherished each conversation, and it has stoked me to persevere and enthused me for the drive forward.

I for one feel that it signifies the official final page in our initial phase of the plan to ensure Lasso becomes one of the most prevalent web languages in use by developers within the next five years. What part of the plan is that? The plan of triaging the many problems within the Lasso world, cleaning up shop and forever ending the skepticism about the possible survival of Lasso.

]]>The Big Pushhttp://www.lassosoft.com/The-Big-Push-Blog
Fri, 27 Apr 2012 03:32 -0400Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/The-Big-Push-Blog
I know, I know, it's been too long since I've had time to blog. In my defence, I did say at the onset that I hate blogging.

Having said that, the LassoSoft team is throwing itself into high gear in anticipation of the conference in a month. There have been been so many incredible things happening at LassoSoft in the past few months that it is difficult to summarize them all. We are trying to wrap up as many as possible. It's going to be tight and we are busting ourselves in half to produce.

]]>Lasso Anniversary Video Bloghttp://www.lassosoft.com/Lasso-Anniversary-2011-vBlog
Sat, 03 Dec 2011 11:43 -0500Rachel Guthriehttp://www.lassosoft.com/Lasso-Anniversary-2011-vBlog
The latest blog instalment is a video that summarises the past year for our wonderful new company LassoSoft Inc. I also give insights into the future and the exciting things still ahead. Drawn mostly from the open webinar session attended by our community on Dec 2, 2011, the vblog also reminds me just how far we have come.
]]>Security Through Obscurity?http://www.lassosoft.com/Security-and-Obscurity
Tue, 08 Nov 2011 01:19 -0500Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/Security-and-Obscurity
I know better than to write this particular post, especially after selling more copies of Lasso in the last month than since May 2007. Lasso is taking off again.

However, I'm going to write it anyway, if only because of the importance that Lasso developers hear good things about Lasso, to be used as ammunition to attract potential clients. We need to answer the "why Lasso?" in a way the client will understand and appreciate: Security.

]]>The Enigma Machinehttp://www.lassosoft.com/The-Enigma-Machine
Fri, 02 Sep 2011 02:35 -0400Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/The-Enigma-Machine"It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key." - Winston Churchhill

Tomorrow will be exactly nine months from the day we announced our purchase of the Lasso intellectual property with the intent of significantly rejuvenating the community and the language of Lasso. Today we had an internal celebration over the many things we have accomplished: from documentation and reference material, to improvements and tweaking of the language itself, to a new website and marketing materials galore.

]]>Auditing the Hammerhttp://www.lassosoft.com/Auditing-the-Hammer
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 03:22 -0400Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/Auditing-the-Hammer"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat everything as if it were a nail." - Abraham Maslow

As promised, we spent the last few weeks digging through various systems and code people sent us looking for reasons for backwards compatibility issues from Lasso 8 to Lasso 9. All in all we received tens of thousands of lines of code and went through as much code as possible over the past few weeks. We continue to go through it. The end goal is simple: find out where the issues in backwards compatibility in 9 exist - if they exist - and fix them.

Strategically, this would give us real examples of how the tool of Lasso is being used. Sure, we sell a hammer, and we expect it to be used in a particular way. But what if people use the other end of the hammer to pound in nails? In my opinion, our product should be able to deal with those issues. In my opinion, I should be able to bang in a nail with any side of Lasso I so choose.

But we can't just provide you with a a ball of steel and call it a hammer. We need to know how it gets used in order to improve its design appropriately.

In actual fact, the name of this post should be "Why Lasso 9 is better than PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby, Coldfusion, Java, ASP, Lisp, Scheme, Tcl, Smalltalk, BASIC, C, C#, C++ and all other languages combined - including Lasso 8 - for building websites and web applications." However, long titles are bad for SEO.

]]>Hit by a Bushttp://www.lassosoft.com/Hit-by-a-Bus
Thu, 25 Aug 2011 04:18 -0400Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/Hit-by-a-Bus
Lasso'er Pier K. had a great tweet a few days ago about his solution to the question which most of us get asked frequently (I don't care how large a company you are, it never goes away): "What happens if you get hit by a bus?"

Pier's solution was simple: Ride the bus. If you are on the bus, how can you get hit by it?

]]>The Importance of Backwards Compatibilityhttp://www.lassosoft.com/Importance-of-Backwards-Compatibility
Wed, 10 Aug 2011 05:49 -0400Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/Importance-of-Backwards-Compatibility
Our commitment to the Lasso community includes actively polling our most engaged developers (CLDs) to direct our course in development. There has been plenty to do over the last 8 month as we have been putting Humpty Dumpty together again (and still is!), and your direct feedback has been very helpful.

"I think of programming the same way an artist thinks of painting or a musician thinks of music, it's not simply a means to an end, or a job, but something inside of you that needs to be expressed." - Andrew Wulf

Since December 1st of last year, I have been struggling with articulating the reason for Lasso's existence. Obviously, I have known there is something at the bottom of it all, some reason to continue. Otherwise, I wouldn't have invested the hundreds of thousands of dollars and much of my remaining hair into the language over the last eight months.

But I haven't quite been able to put my finger on it.

]]>Radio Silencehttp://www.lassosoft.com/Radio-Silence
Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:25 -0400Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/Radio-Silence
As per usual with blogs - things get extraordinarily busy, one puts ones head down to get things done, time passes, writing momentum wanes, and your blog falls on its face. In my case, this was a function of the many important things we were working on but the lack of things urgent to say. I went on holiday in Ireland for a few weeks, and when I returned, my blog discipline had all leaked out and was replaced by "doing". My apologies for the lag.
]]>New Pricing Options April 2011http://www.lassosoft.com/New-Pricing-Options-April-2011
Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:18 -0400Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/New-Pricing-Options-April-2011
Technically, as of a few hours ago, I am on holiday for 12 days (to bonnie Ireland). However, before I disappeared from the working world, I felt it appropriate to complete the circle of licensing discussion and tie up the few loose ends which have been brought forward over the past few weeks.

Based on feedback through various streams, we have made some changes to the pricing models and brought out something new to meet an identified gap.

]]>The One Million Dollar Licensehttp://www.lassosoft.com/One-Million-Dollars-for-Lasso
Wed, 23 Mar 2011 07:27 -0400Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/One-Million-Dollars-for-Lasso
I had a magnificent conversation the other day (the day before our new site went live) with the original founder of Blueworld, and the man who started it all: Bill Doerfield.

Although I've had his phone number for a while, I felt a little timid to call him. This is the man, who when I was practically still in diapers, owned the company which I started programming with in the late 90's. I was still working as a professional musician (if you can call "a long-hours job where you don't make money" a profession), and stumbled into website development.

I remember him as some sort of larger-than-life lesser god, like a Steve Jobs.
]]>On His Blindness (Pricing Rationale)http://www.lassosoft.com/On-His-Blindness
Sun, 20 Mar 2011 11:17 -0400Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/On-His-Blindness
As a CEO, one is regularly called to come back to the goals and values of the shareholders and ensure that you are on track with the vision of the company as a whole. In the Lasso world, unlike many business worlds, I genuinely see developers as shareholders instead of customers. Customers are one-time buyers, who just buy on price. At another level, there are Clients, who have a little more investment in the brand and enough loyalty to at least comment about things before voting with their feet. Above them are Partners, who get a little more emotionally invested, as they stand to lose something. Then there are Shareholders.
]]>Miliahttp://www.lassosoft.com/Milia
Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:45 -0400Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/Milia
I feel the need to be extraordinarily transparent with you all this evening, and so I will be.

The truth is, I hate babies.

In particular, newborns. I takes a real man to admit this, I believe. I mean, a woman comes out with a newborn from the hospital and everyone is always cooing and oogling the thing, and telling the mother how beautiful the child is. People make comments like "wow, she looks just like you", or "she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!".

In the back of my head, I'm thinking "OH GOD! They let it out of the hospital like that?! Without any elective surgery!?"
]]>The CLDhttp://www.lassosoft.com/The-CLD
Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:12 -0400Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/The-CLD
As we move towards a final release date this week, I am reminded about one of the difficulties in trying to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner. Trying to prepare a dozen different dishes with four elements and one oven can be an ordeal: you try to keep certain cooked things hot while hoping that the turkey gets done at the same time. No matter how well you plan the meal, something always gets a little under or over cooked.

We are trying to introduce a whole slew of changes, within a few months of taking over the reins of the Lasso product line. I can't promise every dish, on it's own, will be perfect. But I do certainly have the goal that the overall meal will leave you with a sense of relief and satisfaction. If the carrots are a little undercooked, so be it, we'll put them back in the pot for when you go for second helpings.
]]>The New Pricing Metaphorhttp://www.lassosoft.com/Pricing-March-2011
Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:47 -0500Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/Pricing-March-2011
It's been a few weeks since my last post. Not exclusively because I am lazy, but also because I have been sick and have been behind the workload wave for a few weeks, with tax audits and other fun experiences.

As we enter the final lap of getting new versions of Lasso live, we have also started tightening up a new pricing metaphor, and thought it would be consistent with LassoSoft's values to share the metaphor with the community and get some feedback before we officially pull the trigger and start selling.

I'll re-iterate, it would be nice if Lasso were free. Unfortunately, components for an alternative business model (i.e. selling IDEs and the like) are not yet in existence. For the Lasso machine to continue and grow, it needs to make money until we get there.

Our goals, as stated some time ago, have many high-level objectives;

- Lower the barrier to entry for developers
- Lower the cost barrier for hosting companies to host websites, thus lowering hosting costs
- Create stable recurring revenue to ensure that LassoSoft is positioned for the future
- Try not abuse developers, but scale pricing for larger corporations
- Create more modern payment options for modern organizations
]]>"End Client" vs "Developer"http://www.lassosoft.com/End-Client-vs-Developer
Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:24 -0500Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/End-Client-vs-Developer
Someone (Jason) had a great comment on my last blog post, about the confusion between the "end user" and the "developer". It is such an important distinction, I thought I would write something else about it. Understanding my theory here will certainly help the community understand what will be happening with the new marketing initiatives we are working on.
]]>"Open Source" and "Free"http://www.lassosoft.com/Open-Source-and-Free-Lasso
Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:18 -0500Sean Stephenshttp://www.lassosoft.com/Open-Source-and-Free-Lasso
I think it is important, before we finalize pricing internally, to open the can of worms of the "Open Source" discussion and unpack it in front of the community for discussion. Most importantly, I feel it is important that the Lasso community knows what I (Sean Stephens, CEO) am thinking and help me refine any incorrect dogma and challenge my theories meaningfully. I want to make sure we are going the right direction.

"I have no lid upon my head, But if I did
You could look inside and see
What's on my mind"
- Dave Matthews

Our new mission is not to squeeze what is left of the Lasso hard-core community for their last few pennies and run into the wilderness twisting our mustachios and cackling with glee. Our mission is to provide the most reasonable and sustainable business model for the Lasso language so that it might flourish - and hopefully become the most prevalent language in the world. We want Lasso to be one of the "big five" languages left standing for future generations. Any lesser motivation would be an acceptance of mediocrity.
]]>